AuthorTopic: Eleanor Rigby (Read 15768 times)

I was just wondering if anyone had an opinion on what the song meant...my friend and I came up with a couple of reasonings: 1) They were just singing about how obscure people are. 2) Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie were having an affair...I may be completely opposite of the real idea but comments welcome..

Paul had the music of the song written before the lyrics (which was common place). He came up with the verse "Picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been" and formed the idea that the song would be about lonely people. As for Eleanor,,this was just a name that Paul liked (he said probably because of Eleanor Bron who he knew at the time) and Rigby was a name of a shop that Paul walked past.

Most of us know that Father McCartney was the original thought up name for the priest because it just fit the syllables, but paul didnt want to use McCartney because of his dad. John and Paul went to the phone book and looked at the next name in line after Mccartney,,,,hence McKenzie.

[quote by=Bruno link=Blah.pl?b=songs,m=1083192537,s=2 date=1083244871]I read somewhere that there's actually an Eleanor Rigby buried in the Church's graveyeard where John met Paul in 1957 while playing for the Quarrymen.[/quote]

I understand the basis of the poem....but I was wondering about the lines about Father McKenzie...like "Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near.." and "Father McKenzie wiping his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved.." any ideas on these lines?

[quote by=Bruno link=Blah.pl?b=songs,m=1083192537,s=2 date=1083244871]I read somewhere that there's actually an Eleanor Rigby buried in the Church's graveyeard where John met Paul in 1957 while playing for the Quarrymen.[/quote]

And here it is...

This is the gravestone of Eleanor Rigby which was only discovered in the mid-Eighties in the grounds of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool. It was at a church-organised Garden Fete that John first met Paul on 6th July 1957.

In the 1980s, a grave of an Eleanor Rigby was "discovered" in the graveyard of St. Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool, and a few yards away from that, another tombstone with the last name McKenzie scrawled across it.[24][25] During their teenage years, McCartney and Lennon spent time "sunbathing" there, within earshot of where the two had met for the first time during a fete in 1957. Many years later McCartney stated that the strange coincidence between reality and lyric could be a product of his subconscious, rather than being a meaningless fluke.[24] The actual Eleanor Rigby was born in 1895 and lived in Liverpool, possibly in the suburb of Woolton, where she married a man named Thomas Woods. She died on 10 October 1939 at age 44. Whether this Eleanor was the inspiration for the song or not, her tombstone has become a landmark to Beatles fans visiting Liverpool.[26] A digitised version was added to the 1995 music video for The Beatles' reunion song "Free as a Bird".

In June 1990, McCartney donated a document dating from 1911 which had been signed by the 16-year-old Eleanor Rigby to Sunbeams Music Trust,[27] instantly attracting significant international interest from collectors because of the significance and provenance of the document.[28] The nearly 100-year-old document was sold at auction in November 2008 for £115,000 ($250,000).[29] The Daily Telegraph reported that the uncovered document "is a 97-year-old salary register from Liverpool City Hospital." The name E. Rigby is printed on the register, and she is identified as a scullery maid.